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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 26, 2026

Examining Gesture Production in the Presence of Communication Challenges
07:18

Examining Gesture Production in the Presence of Communication Challenges

Published on: January 26, 2024

Co-speech gesture as input in verb learning.

Whitney Goodrich1, Carla L Hudson Kam

  • 1Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94709, USA. wgoodrich@berkeley.edu

Developmental Science
|January 6, 2009
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Listeners can learn new verbs from gestures alone. This research shows that both adults and children can infer verb meanings from iconic gestures, suggesting gesture aids language acquisition.

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Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Jun 26, 2026

Examining Gesture Production in the Presence of Communication Challenges
07:18

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Published on: January 26, 2024

Memorization-Based Training and Testing Paradigm for Robust Vocal Identity Recognition in Expressive Speech Using Event-Related Potentials Analysis
05:48

Memorization-Based Training and Testing Paradigm for Robust Vocal Identity Recognition in Expressive Speech Using Event-Related Potentials Analysis

Published on: August 9, 2024

Area of Science:

  • Psycholinguistics
  • Developmental Psychology
  • Cognitive Science

Background:

  • Co-speech gesture is a common communicative behavior.
  • Previous research confirms listeners can interpret information conveyed through gesture.
  • The role of gesture in language acquisition remains an active area of investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate if language learners can utilize co-speech gesture to acquire new vocabulary.
  • To determine if iconic gestures can inform the learning of novel verb forms.
  • To explore gesture as a potential source of linguistic input for learners.

Main Methods:

  • Two experiments were conducted involving adult and child participants (2-4 years old).
  • Participants were presented with novel intransitive verbs accompanied by iconic gestures.
  • Meaning inference was assessed in the absence of other linguistic or contextual cues.

Main Results:

  • Adults and children successfully inferred the meaning of novel intransitive verbs solely from accompanying iconic gestures.
  • Gesture provided sufficient information for meaning assignment when no other input was available.
  • Learning occurred across different age groups, including young children.

Conclusions:

  • Iconic co-speech gesture can serve as a direct source of semantic information for language learners.
  • Findings support the hypothesis that gesture plays a functional role in the language acquisition process.
  • Gesture may provide crucial input that aids in the assignment of meaning to novel words, particularly verbs.